Category: Case Law

The most recent case of R v Takhar, a case where a 61 year old Defendant had pleaded guilty to multiple breaches of the FSO, had received concurrent sentences (served at the same time – ie 6 months in total) of 6 months...

In the case of R v Mirza (2012), the Court did find that a suspended custodial sentence, with an unpaid work requirement of 200 hours, was manifestly excessive, given the offender’s circumstances. The community service aspect of...

The case of R v O’Rourke (2011) involved an appeal against an 8 month prison sentence for failing to make a suitable and sufficient Fire Risk Assessment where Mr O’Rourke, who had no fire safety qualifications had carried out a...

This was then followed by the very surprising case of R v Draper in October 2011. Again the principles set out in Howe were applied after the Landlord of a house, divided into occupied flats, had failed to comply with Articles 8...

The first real authority on the FSO came in the case of New Look Retailers Ltd v The London Fire & Emergency Planning Authority in 2010. The Court of Appeal, in that case, considered whether and to what extent the approach...

The reasoning outlined in the Howe case was followed in R v ESB Hotels Ltd which was also a case prior to the FSO, but which did involve offences contrary to the Fire Precautions Act 1971. In that case the Court of Appeal laid...

The case of R v S Howe & Son (Engineers) Ltd is the leading case considered by the Courts when approaching sentence in fire safety matters. The case of Howe is not a fire safety case and its judgment was delivered in 1999...

Sentencing Fire Safety Cases – A Missed Opportunity Last year I wrote 2 articles (March and April) which considered the way in which the courts approached sentencing in cases involving breaches of the Fire Safety Order. I...